The $10,000 six-max no-limit hold’em event on the 2016 World Series of Poker produced one of the crucial toughest fields of the summer, with 294 of the world’s best players generating a complete prize pool of $2,763,600.

After three days of action, the title, the bracelet and the $665,709 first-place prize went to Australian poker pro Martin Kozlov. Kozlov’s previous best live tournament score came in 2010, when he finished first within the ANZPT Melbourne main event for $189,908. He now has greater than $1.5 million in live tournament earnings.

In order to secure the victory, Kozlov needed to overcome a tricky final table that featured four WSOP bracelet winners.

“Winning this tournament may be very satisfying,” Kozlov said. “It’s tough. It’s prestigious. It’s the very best players out there.”

While Kozlov dominated the overall table, some of the focus was on fourth-place finisher and poker outcast Chris Ferguson. The previous Full Tilt Poker executive was frequently booed while on the final table, and a handful of poker fans celebrated his elimination by yelling obscenities as he exited the overall table stage.

But despite the raucous environment, Kozlov said he wasn’t distracted.

“The crowd didn’t really affect me all that much,” Kozlov explained. “When you're playing, you get right into a zone and tune that out. You simply take care of the cards. You don’t take into consideration what’s occurring beyond the felt.”

It gave the impression of the players must return for a fourth day, but a double elimination at the last hand of the tournament provided one of the vital more exciting finishes in WSOP history.

Kozlov had the button and raised to 250,000. Justin Bonomo then moved all in for 2,920,000 with pocket nines. Davidi Kitai then reraised all in for 3,850,000 with pocket sixes. Unfortunately for them, Kozlov had an actual hand and made the simple call with pocket queens. The flop brought the last two queens within the deck, and Kozlov celebrated together with his contingent at the rail.

Kozlov is the 12th Australian to win gold on the WSOP. Australia now has 21 WSOP titles in total.

Other notables with deep runs on this event included Nick Petrangelo (5th), Jack Salter (6th), Vanessa Selbst (9th), Paul Volpe (10th), Steve Gross (11th), Frank Kassela (12th), Brandon Steven (17th), Scott Seiver (19th), Jonathan Little (20th) and Max Silver (24th).

Here is a glance on the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Place	Player	Earnings (USD)	POY Points
1	Martin Kozlov	$665,709	1,140
2	Davidi Kitai	$411,441	950
3	Justin Bonomo	$271,856	760
4	Chris Ferguson	$183,989	570
5	Nick Petrangelo	$127,622	475
6	Jack Salter	$90,783	380

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with an entire schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

Winner photo courtesy of the WSOP.

Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]